Sunday, April 9, 2017

BBC too cute to keep up with?

The synchronised steps of Irish dancing are a mesmerising sight but not recommended for travelling in lifts, a Belfast hotel has advised.
A tongue-in-cheek sign posted by management of a Premier Inn warned Riverdancing residents against rehearsing reels while between floors.
The World Irish Dance Championships are being held at the city'sWaterfront Hall.
 A "tongue in cheek" sign??? Oh, those cute BBC reporters ... so full of whimsey they're just bursting to share ... and if that whimsey manages to sidestep a little journalistic lifting ... oh well, we're just jitterbug kids!

As far back as at least World War I ... and probably further ... road-marching soldiers were ordered to switch from synchronized "marching" to "rout-step" when they came to a bridge. Any bridge.

"Routstep" (probably called different things in different countries) is the personalized, no-synchronicity, individualized way of walking. Soldiers marching in unison (as perhaps dancers dancing in a large elevator?) are inviting calamity when the forces of gravity join with marchers/dancers U-N-I-S-O-N to create an extra serious weight factor.

 You might think a reporter would get it quicker than most: there is always something funny in the serious; and there is always something serious in the funny. 


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